essed
as to whither he had gone, in testing which I had visited no less than
twenty cities, making careful inquiries, especially among medical men.
Occasionally I struck what seemed to be a promising clew, which only
increased my confusion and left me more hopelessly in the dark. I had
reported my movements to Mr. Earl as often as once a week and I received
letters from him frequently, encouraging me to continue the search and
enclosing money with which to do so. But although I had written often
to Hester Chaffin no word from her ever reached me. I was tired of this
fruitless quest among strangers, so far from the little that I held
dear, and I was on the point of giving up when this paragraph fell under
my eye in a Montreal newspaper:

A MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER.

"One who has ever passed the city of Ogdensburg by steamer will no doubt
recall a large gambrel-roofed house standing near the water's edge, just
out of the town, surrounded by towering trees and enclosed on all sides
by a wall nearly as high as the eaves of the building. The wall suggests
an asylum, a house of detention or some like place set apart for the
unfortunate members of society. In reality, however, it is the residence
of a mysterious recluse of the name of Lane, who shut himself up there
nearly eighteen years ago and has since been rarely seen. It was built
after his own plans, they say, when he came to Ogdensburg with his wife,
who died soon afterward. Nobody knows whence he came or anything of his
past history. He is apparently a total stranger here below, holding no
intercourse with the world beyond that enclosure. His wife is said to
have been a woman of great beauty, and her death doubtless threw him
into a morbid state of mind, from which he has never rallied. Many
years ago he is known to have bought a full-grown African lion from a
traveling menagerie, and, soon after, he erected the wall, presumably
out of regard for the public safety. Passers along the street have
caught an occasional glimpse of him through the high gate, walking in
the grounds surrounding his house, with the lion at his heels apparently
in complete subjection to its master. A dense thicket runs along the
wall on all sides within the enclosure, which, according to local
tradition, is alive with rattlesnakes, bred for some strange purpose
known only to himself--perhaps to make his isolation more secure.

"He is supposed to have resigned the companionship of men fo